Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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Ralph, thanks for posting the link to these fascinating photos. There are many more interesting things on the site, in addition to the pictures, including a discussion of landscape level vegetation changes in Yellowstone. It’s definitely worth exploring.
Yes. It looks like a very valuable web resource.
I am intrigued by the research. By the way, so much commentary on your blog deals with wildlife vs. livestock and it’s all interesting and informative, and I plan to follow up on the leads to satisfy my curiosity, and to help me decide what I can do personally. Eating less meat seems to be a reasonable, productive thing to do — I’m certainly considering it. It seems many of my fellow Americans find that idea ridiculous or contemptuous though. Interesting debate in my opinion nonetheless. Thanks for the informative blog Ralph. I’ll continue to read.
Eric
Silly of me to put all that in this thread. My apologies..
After what I have witnessed over the past 3 days, I’d say it is shameful the way this pack is pursued for photo ops. The stories I’ve heard and the first hand accounts of what is going on here in Hayden makes me sick. It reminds me of the torment #163 went through as he was harassed by greedy photographers. The White Alpha female has been at the center of most of this crap. This animal will be chased into traffic one day and injured or killed. What a damn mess.
I took the photos in question. Thanks for linking to them by the way.
I agree with “Skyrim” that the wolves are becoming too much of a commodity, and it makes me angry when I see wildlife pursued or harrassed. I didn’t do either of these things. Consider that (1) I used a 640mm lens, and (2) this pack is unusually tolerant of people. I was on the road the entire time I took the pictures. Actually I never got off my snowmobile.
Judging by the number of phone calls and emails, the Hayden Pack must very especially visible this year.
As I have said before, if a wolf bites someone I think this pack is the most likely candidate.
Excellent pics!!
My wife and me just returned from 2 weeks hiking in YNP. Unfortunately, we did not see any wolves. The Lamar seems to be a large parking lot nowadays. We simply passed by silently seeking less crowded areas. Hayden Valley was a bit difficult to reach due to the nightly road closure and because we lodged just outside the east entrance. Howard Eaton Trail from Wapiti Lake trailhead was posted as “off trail hiking prohibited due to wolf management” (!?!?), whatever this means (is there a den close by?). The rangers seemed not to know also, however they removed the sign and closed the trail completely after argumenting with us and calling back headquarters. We had a “classic” (grizzly) bear encounter on the Soda Butte Trail about 5 miles from the road. Despite of making noise and carefully checking visually with eyes and binoculars we did not notice the bear “just around the corner”. From a distance of about 150ft (bit too close for comfort) he turned towards us for a few steps and then turned opposite and ran away while we were doing the “continue slowly and do not look into his face”. Two days later we passed the incident site in Hayden Valley just a few hours after the mauling had taken place and a Ranger team being out to search for the bear. This gave us of course reason to recollect and rediscuss our own encounter, to figure out what went good, what went wrong.
Thanks for the report, Peter.
I think there might be dispute between the Canyon Park rangers and the Yellowstone wolf team about managing people around the Hayden Pack.
All of my on-the-trail grizzly encounters in Yellowstone Park have been in May and June. Yes, I can imagine you are recounting the event on the trail (I suppose it was up in the Lamar River canyon a way).